Lenovo‘s laptop business has unarguably been very successful, more than the smartphone arm. That is because of the world-class design, strong build quality, solid security and extensive manageability options that are available on its wide range of laptops. Lenovo’s laptop business was only second to HP but a recent report by IDC for the third quarter of the year (3Q18) shows that the Chinese manufacturer shipped a total of nearly 67.4 million units of traditional PCs (desktop, notebook, and workstation).

Despite the shipment marking a decline of 0.9% in year-on-year terms, Lenovo still goes ahead of its fierce rival Hewlett Packard (HP). Lenovo recently entered into a joint venture with Fujitsu and this is the second quarter of the partnership. The addition of Fujitsu volume helped to push the vendor to the top spot with 24% of the global market share. The company also saw a marked improvement in its North American business in the wake of a revamped channel strategy and more stable management.

Its part, HP grew a modest 0.3% year on year but still reached its tenth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth and slightly outgrew its market share from a year ago. It faced a tough quarter in the U.S. as well as Latin America. Dell Inc. tied with Lenovo in terms of year-on-year growth at 5.8% and further expanded its market share versus a year ago. A strong showing in desktop volume overall and a great EMEA quarter were the driving forces behind its results.

Acer climbed to 4th place with strong performances in education and gaming. The company has continued to focus on building out a comprehensive Chrome OS portfolio and its gaming notebooks have also garnered significant uptake. Apple finished the quarter in 5th place, declined over 11%, and was the only top 5 company to underperform the overall market.